And the winner is…

The 20th anniversary of the Innsbruck Nature Film Festival was celebrated with film makers from around the globe and their 50 movies caught on the public for four days in and around the Metropol cinema in Innsbruck, Tyrol’s capital. The top-class jury has decided and awarded the documentaries „The Loneliest Whale – The Search for 52“ and „La Vie est dans le Pré“ with the 2021 Grand Prizes of Innsbruck, endowed each with €3.000.

„The Loneliest Whale – The Search for 52” received the Grand Prize for the best nature documentary. Directed by New York’s Joshua Zeman and produced by Hollywood actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Adrian Genier, the film accompanies a team of researchers in quest of the 52-Hertz-Whale-mystery to uncover one of the secrets of the submarine world. The jury emphasizes that the hope that remains at the end of the film connects our emotions and sense of community as human beings with “The Loneliest Whale”.

„La Vie est dans le Pré“ (Life beyond Monsanto) won the Grand Prize for the best environmental documentary. Director Eric Guéret stages the French farmer Paul François, who got intoxicated, proceed against Monsanto and shifted to organic farming. The film tells the one-year trip from the last “chemical” harvest to the first without pesticides. The jury points out that the inspiring images illuminate important topics of today’s agricultural policy and show the protagonist’s further development in a sensitive way without portraying him as a hero.

All awarded and honored films can be found here: www.naturefestival.eu/film.